BX 
9178 


(WkatJ>eace  Means 


HENRY  VAN  DYKE 


/V    <^    C     **>/ 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 

Carle ton  Shay 


WHAT   PEACE    MEANS 


IVhat  Peace  Means 


By 

Henry  van  Dyke 


New     York  Chicago 

Fleming     H.      Revel  I     Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1919,  by 
FLEMING  II.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
London  :  2 1  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh :       75     Princes     Street 


25* 

9/72 


To 

My  Son  hi  the  Faith 

My  Brother  in  the  Work 

Tertius  van  Dyke 


813756 


FOREWORD 


HIS  little  book  contains 
three  plain  sermons  which 
were  preached  in  New 
York  in  the  Easter  season 
of  1919,  in  the  Park  Ave- 
nue Presbyterian  Church,  of  which  my 
son  is  minister.  I  had  no  thought  that 
they  would  ever  be  printed.  They  were, 
and  are,  just  daily  bread  discourses  meant  to 
serve  the  spiritual  needs  of  a  congrega- 
tion of  Christian  people,  seekers  after 
truth,  inquirers  about  duty,  strangers  and 
pilgrims,  in  the  great  city  and  the  troubled 
world. 

But  if,  as  friends  think,  these  simple 
chapters  may  be  of  service  through  the 
printed  page  to  a  larger  circle  of  readers, 
I  willingly  and  freely  let  them  go. 

May  the  blessing  of  Jesus  follow  them 

L»] 


Foreword 

on  their  humble  path.  May  the  Spirit  of 
Truth  bring  them  home  to  some  hearts 
that  want  them, — to  those  who  desire  to 
escape  from  evil  and  do  good, — to  those 
who  "  seek  peace  and  ensue  it." 

Henry  van  Dyke. 

Park  Avenue  Church  Manse, 
New  York  City. 


CONTENTS 

I.  Peace  in  the  Soul         .        .        .11 

II.  Peace  on  Earth  Through  Right- 

eousness      27 

III.  The  Power  of  an  Endless  Life    .     41 


|9 


) 


Peace  in  the  Soul 


Peace  I  leave   with  you  :  my  peace  I 
give  unto  you. — St.  JOHN  14:  27. 


PEACE  IN  THE  SOUL 


EACE  is  one  of  the  great 
words  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. It  is  woven  through 
the  Old  Testament  and 
the  New  like  a  golden 
thread.  It  inheres  and  abides  in  the  char- 
acter of  God, — 

"  The  central  peace  subsisting  at  the  heart 
Of  endless  agitation." 

It  is  the  deepest  and  most  universal 
desire  of  man,  whose  prayer  in  all  ages 
has  been, "  Grant  us  Thy  Peace,  O  Lord." 
It  is  the  reward  of  the  righteous,  the 
blessing  of  the  good,  the  crown  of  life's 
effort,  and  the  glory  of  eternity. 

The  prophets  foretell  the  beauty  of  its 
coming  and  the  psalmists  sing  of  the  joy 
which  it  brings.  Jesus  Christ  is  its  Divine 
[13] 


What    Peace    Means 

Messiah,  its  high  priest  and  its  holy- 
prince.  The  evangelists  and  prophets 
proclaim  and  preach  it.  From  beginning 
to  end  the  Bible  is  full  of  the  praise  of 
peace. 

Yet  there  never  was  a  book  more  full 
of  stories  of  trouble  and  strife,  disaster 
and  sorrow.  God  Himself  is  revealed  in 
it  not  as  a  calm,  untroubled,  self-absorbed 
Deity,  occupied  in  beatific  contemplation 
of  His  own  perfections.  He  is  a  God 
who  works  and  labours,  who  wars  against 
the  evil,  who  fights  for  the  good.  The 
psalmist  speaks  of  Him  as  "  The  Lord  of 
Hosts,  strong  and  mighty  in  battle." 
The  Revelation  of  St.  John  tells  us  that 
"  There  was  war  in  Heaven;  Michael  and 
his  angels  fought  against  the  dragon." 
Jesus  Christ  said:  "I  came  not  to  send 
peace,  but  a  sword." 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  this  idea  of 
"  peace,"  like  all  good  and  noble  things, 
has  its  counterfeit,  its  false  and  subtle  ad- 
[H] 


Peace    in    the    Soul 

versary,  which  steals  its  name  and  its  gar- 
ments to  deceive  and  betray  the  hearts  of 
men.  We  find  this  clearly  taught  in  the 
Bible.  Not  more  earnestly  does  it  praise 
true  peace  than  it  denounces  false  peace. 

There  is  no  peace,  saith  the  Lord,  unto  the 
wicked  (Isaiah  48:22). 

For  they  have  healed  the  hurt  of  the  daugh- 
ter of  my  people  slightly,  saying,  Peace,  peace; 
when  there  is  no  peace  (Jer.  8:  11). 

//  thou  liadst  known,  even  tJiou,  at  least  in 
this  thy  day,  the  things  which  belong  unto  thy 
peace!  but  now  they  are  hid  from  thine  eyes 
(St.  Luke  19:42). 

For  to  be  carnally  minded  is  death;  but  to 
be  spiritually  minded  is  life  and  peace  (Ro- 
mans 8 :  6). 

There  never  was  a  time  in  human  his- 
tory when  a  right  understanding  of  the 
nature  of  true  peace,  the  path  which  leads 
to  it,  the  laws  which  govern  it,  was  more 
necessary  or  more  important  than  it  is 
to-day. 

[IS] 


IFhat    Peace    Means 

The  world  has  just  passed  through  a 
ghastly  experience  of  war  at  its  worst. 
Never  in  history  has  there  been  such 
slaughter,  such  agony,  such  waste,  such 
desolation,  in  a  biief  space  of  time,  as  in 
tne  four  terrible  years  of  conflict  which 
German  militarism  forced  on  the  world  in 
the  twentieth  century.  Having  seen  it,  I 
know  what  it  means. 

No.v  we  have  "supped  full  with  hor- 
rors." We  have  had  more  than  enough 
of  that  bloody  banquet.  The  heart  of 
humanity  longs  for  peace,  as  it  has  al- 
ways longed,  but  now  with  a  new  in- 
tensity, greater  than  ever  before.  Yet 
the  second  course  of  war  continues.  The 
dogs  fight  for  the  crumbs  under  the  peace- 
table.  Ignorant  armies  clash  by  night. 
Cities  are  bombarded  and  sacked.  The 
barbarous  Bolsheviki  raise  the  red  flag  of 
violence  and  threaten  a  war  of  classes 
throughout  the  world. 

You  can  never  make  a  golden  age  out 
[16] 


Peace    in    the    Soul 

of  leaden  men,  or  a  peaceful  world  out  of 
lovers  of  strife. 

Where  shall  peace  be  found?  How 
shall  it  be  attained  and  safeguarded? 
Evidently  the  militarists  have  assaulted  it 
with  their  doctrine  that  might  makes 
right.  Evidently  the  pacifists  have  be- 
trayed it  with  their  doctrine  of  passive 
acceptance  of  wrong.  Somewhere  be- 
tween these  two  errors  there  must  be  a 
ground  of  truth  on  which  Christians  can 
stand  to  defend  their  faith  and  maintain 
their  hope  of  a  better  future  for  the  world. 

Let  me  begin  by  speaking  of  Peace  in 
the  Soul.  That  is  where  religion  begins, 
in  the  heart  of  a  person.  Its  flowers  and 
fruits  are  social.  They  are  for  the  bless- 
ing of  the  world.  But  its  root  is  personal. 
You  can  never  start  with  a  class-conscious 
or  a  mass-conscious  Christianity.  It  must 
begin  with  just  you  and  God. 

Marshal  Joffre,  that  fine  Christian  sol- 
dier, said  a  memorable  thing  about  the 
[17] 


What    Peace    Means 


winning  of  the  war :  "  Our  victory  will  be 
the  fruit  of  individual  sacrifice."  So  of 
the  coming  of  peace  on  earth  we  may  say 
the  same :  it  will  be  the  fruit  of  the  en- 
trance of  peace  into  individual  hearts  and 
lives. 

A  world  at  war  is  the  necessary  result 
of  human  restlessness  and  enmities. 
"  From  whence  come  wars  and  fightings 
among  you?  Come  they  not  hence,  even 
of  your  lusts,  that  war  in  your  members?" 
Envy,  malice,  greed,  hatred,  deceit, — 
these  are  the  begetters  of  strife  on 
earth. 

A  world  at  peace  can  come  only  from 
the  cooperation  of  peaceful  human  spirits. 
Therefore  we  must  commence  to  learn 
what  peace  is,  by  seeking  it  in  our  souls 
through  faith. 

Christ  promised  peace  to  His  disciples 

at   the    Communion   in   that   little   upper 

room    in    Jerusalem,    nineteen    hundred 

years  ago.     Evidently  it  was  not  an  out- 

[18] 


Peace    in    the    Soul 

ward  but  an  inward  peace.  He  told  them 
that  they  would  have  a  lot  of  trouble  in 
the  world.  But  He  assured  them  that 
this  could  not  overcome  them  if  they  be- 
lieved in  Him  and  in  His  Father  God. 
He  warned  them  of  conflict,  and  assured 
them  of  inward  peace. 

What  are  the  elements  of  this  won- 
drous gift  which  Christ  gave  to  His  dis- 
ciples, and  which  He  offers  to  us? 

I.  First,  the  peace  of  Christ  is  the 
peace  of  being  divinely  loved.  Nothing 
rests  and  satisfies  the  heart  like  the  sense 
of  being  loved.  Let  us  take  as  an  illus- 
tration the  case  of  a  little  child,  which  has 
grown  tired  and  fretful  at  its  play,  and  is 
frightened  suddenly  by  some  childish 
terror.  Weeping,  it  runs  to  its  mother. 
She  takes  the  child  in  her  arms,  folds  it 
to  her  breast,  bends  over  it,  and  soothes 
it  with  fond  words  which  mean  only  this: 
"  I  love  you."  Very  soon  the  child  sinks 
to  rest,  contented  and  happy,  in  the  sense 
[19] 


What    Peace    Means 

of  being  loved.  "  Herein  is  love,  not  that 
we  loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us,  and 
sent  his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins."  In  Jesus  Christ  God  is  stretching 
out  His  arms  to  us,  drawing  us  to  His 
bosom,  enfolding  us  in  the  secret  of  peace. 
If  we  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Son  of 
God,  He  makes  us  sure  of  a  Divine  affec- 
tion, deep,  infinite,  inexhaustible,  imper- 
ishable. "  For  God  so  loved  the  world, 
that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  God, 
who  "  spared  not  his  dearly-beloved  Son, 
but  delivered  him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall 
he  not  with  him  also  freely  give  us  all 
things?"  "Nothing  shall  be  able  to 
separate  us  from  the  love  of  God,  which 
is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord." 

II.  The  Christian  peace  is  the  peace  of 
being  divinely  controlled.  The  man  who 
accepts  Jesus  Christ  truly,  accepts  Him 
as  Master  and   Lord.     He  believes  that 

[20] 


Peace    in    the    Soul 


Christ  has  a  purpose  for  him,  which  will 
surely  be  fulfilled;  work  for  him,  which 
will  surely  be  blessed  if  he  only  tries  to 
do  it.  Most  of  the  discords  of  life  come 
from  a  conflict  of  authorities,  of  plans,  of 
purposes.  Suppose  that  a  building  were 
going  up,  and  the  architect  had  one  de- 
sign for  it,  and  the  builder  had  another. 
What  perplexity  and  confusion  there 
would  be!  How  ill  things  would  fit! 
What  perpetual  quarrels  and  blunders 
and  disappointments!  But  when  the 
workman  accepts  the  designer's  plan  and 
simply  does  his  best  to  carry  that  out,  har- 
mony, joyful  labour,  and  triumph  are  the 
result.  If  we  accept  God's  plan  for  us, 
yield  to  Him  as  the  daily  controller  and 
director  of  our  life,  our  work,  however 
hard,  becomes  peaceful  and  secure.  No 
perils  can  frighten,  no  interruptions  can 
dishearten  us. 

Not   many  years   ago   some  workmen 
were  digging  a  tunnel,  when  a  sudden  fall 

[21] 


What    Peace    Means 

of  earth  blocked  the  mouth  of  the  open- 
ing. Their  companions  on  the  outside 
found  out  what  had  happened,  and  started 
to  dig  through  the  mass  of  earth  to  the 
rescue.  It  was  several  hours  before  they 
made  their  way  through.  When  they 
went  in  they  found  the  workmen  going 
on  with  their  labour  on  the  tunnel.  "  We 
knew,"  said  one  of  them,  "  that  you'd 
come  to  help  us,  and  we  thought  the  best 
way  to  make  time  pass  quick  was  to  keep 
on  with  the  work."  That  is  what  a  Chris- 
tian may  say  to  Christ  amid  the  dangers 
and  disasters  of  life.  We  know  that  He 
will  never  forsake  us,  and  the  best  way 
to  be  at  peace  is  to  be  about  His  business. 
He  says  to  us:  "As  the  Father  sent  me, 
even  so  send  I  you." 

III.  The  Christian  peace  is  the  peace 
of  being  divinely  forgiven. 

"  In  every  man,"  said  a  philosopher, 
"  there  is  something  which,  if  we  knew  it, 
would   make   us   despise   him."     Let   us 

[22] 


Peace    in    the    Soul 

turn  the  saying,  and  change  it  from  a 
bitter  cynicism  into  a  wholesome  truth. 

In  every  one  of  us  there  is  something 
which,  if  we  realize  it,  makes  us  condemn 
ourselves  as  sinners,  and  hunger  and 
thirst  after  righteousness,  and  long  for 
forgiveness. 

It  is  this  deep  consciousness  of  sin,  of 
evil  in  our  hearts  and  lives,  that  makes 
us  restless  and  unhappy.  The  plasters 
and  soothing  lotions  with  which  the  easy- 
going philosophy  of  modern  times  covers 
it  up,  do  not  heal  it;  they  only  hide  it. 
There  is  no  cure  for  it,  there  is  no  rest  for 
the  sinful  soul,  except  the  divine  forgive- 
ness. There  is  no  sure  pledge  of  this  ex- 
cept in  the  holy  sacrifice  and  blessed 
promise  of  Christ,  "  Son,  daughter,  thy 
sins  are  forgiven  thee,  go  in  peace." 

Understand,  I  do  not  mean  that  what 
we  need  and  want  is  to  have  our  sins 
ignored  and  overlooked.  On  the  con- 
trary, that  is  just  what  would  fail  to  bring 

[■a] 


What    Peace    Means 

us  true  rest.  For  if  God  took  no  account 
of  sins,  required  no  repentance  and  repara- 
tion, He  would  not  be  holy,  just,  and 
faithful,  a  God  whom  we  can  adore  and 
love  and  trust. 

Nor  do  I  mean  that  what  we  need  is 
merely  to  have  the  punishment  of  sins  re- 
mitted. That  would  not  satisfy  the  heart. 
Is  the  child  contented  when  the  father 
says,  "  Well,  I  will  not  punish  you.  Go 
away  "?  No,  what  the  child  wants  is  to 
hear  the  father  say,  "  I  forgive  you. 
Come  to  me."  It  is  to  be  welcomed  back 
to  the  father's  home,  to  the  father's  heart, 
that  the  child  longs. 

Peace  means  not  to  have  the  offense 
ignored,  but  to  have  it  pardoned:  not  to 
have  the  punishment  omitted,  but  to  have 
the  separation  from  God  ended  and  done 
away  with.  That  is  the  peace  of  being 
divinely  forgiven, — a  peace  which  recog- 
nizes sin,  and  triumphs  over  it, — a  peace 
which  not  merely  saves  us  from  death  but 

[24] 


Peace    in    the    Soul 

welcomes  us  home  to  the  divine  love  from 
which  we  have  wandered. 

That  is  the  peace  which  Christ  offers 
to  each  one  of  us  in  His  Gospel.  We 
need  it  in  this  modern  world  as  much  as 
men  and  women  ever  needed  it  in  the  old 
world.  No  New  Era  will  ever  change  its 
meaning  or  do  away  with  its  necessity. 
Indeed,  it  seems  to  me  that  we  need  this 
old-fashioned  religion  to-day  more  than 
ever. 

We  need  it  for  our  own  comfort  and 
strength.  We  need  it  to  deliver  us  from 
the  vanity  and  hollowness,  the  fever  and 
hysteria  of  the  present  age.  We  need  it 
to  make  us  better  soldiers  and  workers 
for  every  good  cause.  Peace  is  coming 
to  all  the  earth  some  day  through  Christ. 
And  those  who  shall  do  most  to  help  Him 
bring  it  are  the  men  and  women  to  whom 
He  gives  Peace  in  the  Soul. 


[25] 


II 

Peace  on  Earth  Through 
Righteousness 


And  the  work  of  righteousness  shall  be 
peace:  and  the  effect  of  righteousness 
quietness  and  cotifidence  forever. 

— Isaiah  32  :  17. 


II 


PEACE  ON  EARTH  THROUGH 
RIGHTEOUSNESS 


FTER  we  have  found  peace 
in  our  own  souls  through 
faith  in  God  and  in  His 
Son,  Jesus  Christ  our 
Saviour,  if  our  faith  is 
honest,  we  must  feel  the  desire  and  the 
duty  of  helping  to  make  peace  prevail  on 
earth. 

But  here  we  are,  in  a  world  of  confusion 
and  conflict.  Darkness  and  ignorance 
strive  against  light.  Evil  hates  and  as- 
saults good.  Wrong  takes  up  arms 
against  right.  Greed  and  pride  and 
passion  call  on  violence  to  defeat  justice 
and  enthrone  blind  force.  So  has  it  been 
since  Cain  killed  Abel,  since  Christ  was 
crucified  on  Calvary,  and  so  it  is  to-day 
wherever  men  uphold  the  false  doctrine 
that  "  might  makes  right." 
[29] 


What    Peace    Means 


The  Bible  teaches  us  that  there  is  no 
foundation  for  enduring  peace  on  earth 
except  in  righteousness:  that  it  is  our 
duty  to  suffer  for  that  cause  if  need  be: 
that  we  are  bound  to  fight  for  it  if  we 
have  the  power:  and  that  if  God  gives  us 
the  victory  we  must  use  it  for  the  per- 
petuation of  righteous  peace. 

In  these  words  I  sum  up  what  seems  to 
me  the  Christian  doctrine  of  war  and 
peace, — the  truth  that  in  time  of  war  we 
must  stand  for  the  right,  and  that  when 
peace  comes  in  sight,  we  must  do  our  best 
to  found  it  upon  justice.  These  two 
truths  cannot  be  separated.  If  we  forget 
the  meaning  of  the  Christian  duty  to 
which  God  called  us  in  the  late  war,  all 
our  sacrifice  of  blood  and  treasure  will 
have  been  in  vain.  If  we  forget  the 
watchword  which  called  our  boys  to  the 
colours,  our  victory  will  be  fruitless.  We 
have  fought  in  this  twentieth  century 
against  the  pagan  German  doctrine  of  war 

[30] 


Peace    on    Earth 

as  the  supreme  arbiter  between  the  tribes 
of  mankind.  They  that  took  the  sword 
must  perish  by  the  sword.  But  in  the 
hour  of  victory  we  must  uphold  the  end 
for  which  we  have  fought  and  suffered, — 
the  advance  of  the  world  towards  a  peace- 
ful life  founded  on  reason  and  justice  and 
fair-play  for  every  man. 

So  there  are  two  heads  to  this  sermon. 
First,  the  indelible  remembrance  of  a 
righteous  acceptance  of  war.  Second, 
the  reasonable  hope  of  a  righteous  founda- 
tion of  peace. 

I.  First  of  all,  then,  it  must  never  be 
forgotten  that  the  Allies  and  America 
were  forced  to  enter  this  war  as  a  work 
of  righteousness  in  order  to  make  the 
world  safe  for  peace. 

Peace  means  something  more  than  the 
mere  absence  of  hostilities.  It  means 
justice,  honour,  fair-play,  order,  security, 
and  the  well-protected  right  of  every  man 
and  nation  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit 
[3i] 


What    Peace    Means 


of  happiness.  It  was  the  German  con- 
tempt for  these  Christian  ideals,  it  was 
the  German  idolatry  of  the  pagan  Odin, 
naked,  cruel,  bloody,  god  of  war,  it  was 
the  German  will  to  power  and  dream  of 
world-dominion,  that  made  the  world  un- 
safe for  real  peace  in  1914. 

Never  could  that  safety  be  secured  un- 
til that  enemy  of  mankind  was  overcome. 
Not  only  for  democracy,  but  also  for  hu- 
man peace,  it  was  necessary,  as  President 
Wilson  said,  that  "  the  German  power,  a 
thing  without  honour,  conscience,  or 
capacity  for  covenanted  faith,  must  be 
crushed." 

I  saw,  from  my  post  of  observation  in 
Holland,  the  hosts  of  heathen  Germany 
massing  for  their  attack  on  the  world's 
peace  in  the  spring  of  1914.  Long  before 
the  pretext  of  war  was  provided  by  the 
murder  of  the  Austrian  Crown-Prince  in 
Serajevo,  I  saw  the  troops,  the  artillery, 
the  mountains  of  ammunition,  assembled 
[32] 


Peace    on    Earth 


at  Aix-la-Chapelle  and  Trier,  ready  for 
the  invasion  of  neutral  Belgium  and 
Luxembourg,  and  the  foul  stroke  at 
France. 

Every  civilized  nation  in  Europe  de- 
sired peace  and  pleaded  for  it.  Little 
Servia  offered  to  go  before  the  Court  of 
Arbitration  at  The  Hague  and  be  tried 
for  the  offense  of  which  she  was  accused. 
Russia,  Italy,  France  and  England  en- 
treated Germany  not  to  make  war,  but 
to  submit  the  dispute  to  judicial  settle- 
ment, to  a  righteous  decision  by  a  con- 
ference of  powers.  But  Germany  said 
no.  She  had  prepared  for  war,  she  wanted 
war,  she  got  war.  And  now  she  must 
abide  by  the  result  of  her  choice. 

I  have  seen  also  with  my  own  eyes  the 
horrors  wrought  by  Germany  in  her  con- 
duct of  the  war  in  Belgium  and  Northern 
France.  Words  fail  me  to  describe  them. 
Childhood  has  been  crucified,  woman- 
hood outraged,  civilization  trampled  in 
[33] 


What    Peace    Means 

the  dust.  The  nations  and  the  men  who 
took  arms  against  these  deviltries  were 
the  servants  of  the  righteous  God  and  the 
followers  of  the  merciful  Christ. 

He  told  us,  "  If  any  man  smite  thee  on 
the  right  cheek,  turn  unto  him  the  left 
also."  But  never  did  He  tell  us  to 
abandon  the  bodies  and  the  lives  of  our 
women  and  children  to  the  outrage  of 
beasts  in  human  form.  On  the  contrary, 
He  said  to  His  disciples,  in  His  parting 
discourse,  "  He  that  hath  no  sword  let 
him  sell  his  garment  and  buy  one." 

Does  any  silly  pacifist  say  that  means  a 
spiritual  sword?  No.  You  could  get 
that  without  selling  your  garment.  It 
means  a  real  sword, — as  real  as  the  purse 
and  the  scrip  which  Christ  told  His  fol- 
lowers to  carry  with  them.  It  means  the 
power  of  arms  dedicated  to  the  service  of 
righteousness  without  which  the  world 
can  never  be  safe  for  peace. 

Here,  then,  we  may  stand  on  the  Word 
[34] 


Peace    on    Earth 

of  God,  on  the  work  of  righteousness  in 
making  the  world  safe  for  peace.  Let  me 
tell  you  of  my  faith  that  every  one  who 
has  given  his  life  for  that  cause,  has 
entered  into  eternal  rest. 

II.  Come  we  now  to  consider  the  sec- 
ond part  of  the  text:  "  the  effect  of  right- 
eousness, quietness  and  confidence  for- 
ever." 

What  shall  be  the  nature  of  the  peace 
to  be  concluded  after  our  victory  in  this 
righteous  war? 

Here  we  have  to  oppose  the  demands 
of  the  bloodthirsty  civilians.  They  ask 
that  German  towns  should  endure  the 
same  sufferings  which  have  been  inflicted 
on  the  towns  of  Belgium  and  Northern 
France.  Let  me  say  frankly  that  I  do  not 
believe  you  could  persuade  our  officers  to 
order  such  atrocities,  or  our  soldiers  to 
obey  such  orders.  Read  the  order  which 
one  of  the  noble  warriors  of  France,  Gen- 
eral Petain,  issued  to  his  men: 
[35] 


What    Peace    Means 

"  To-morrow,  in  order  to  better  dictate 
peace,  you  are  going  to  carry  your  arms 
as  far  as  the  Rhine.  Into  that  land  of 
Alsace-Lorraine  that  is  so  dear  to  us,  you 
will  march  as  liberators.  You  will  go 
further;  all  the  way  into  Germany  to  oc- 
cupy lands  which  are  the  necessary  guar- 
antees for  just  reparation. 

"  France  has  suffered  in  her  ravaged 
fields  and  in  her  ruined  villages.  The 
freed  provinces  have  had  to  submit  to  in- 
tolerable vexations  and  odious  outrages, 
but  you  are  not  to  answer  these  crimes 
by  the  commission  of  violences,  which, 
under  the  spur  of  your  resentment,  may 
seem  to  you  legitimate. 

"  You  are  to  remain  under  discipline 
and  to  show  respect  to  persons  and  prop- 
erty. You  will  know,  after  having  van- 
quished your  adversary  by  force  of  arms, 
how  to  impress  him  further  by  the  dignity 
of  your  attitude,  and  the  world  will  not 
know  which  to  admire  most,  your  conduct 
in  success  or  your  heroism  in  fighting." 

The  destruction  of  the  commonplace 
Cathedral  of  Cologne  could  never  recom- 
pense the  damage  done  to  the  glorious 
Cathedral  of  Rheims.  Nor  could  the 
.slaughter  of  a  million  German  women  and 
[36] 


Peace    on    Earth 


children  restore  the  innocent  victims  of 
Belgium,  France,  Servia,  and  Armenia  to 
life.  We  do  not  thirst  for  blood.  We 
desire  justice. 

No  doubt  the  ends  of  justice  demand 
that  the  principal  brigands  who  are  re- 
sponsible for  the  atrocities  of  this  war 
should  be  tried  before  an  international 
court.  If  convicted  they  should  be  duly 
punished.  But  not  by  mob-law  or  vio- 
lence. Nothing  could  be  less  desirable 
than  the  assassination  of  William  Hohen- 
zollern.  It  would  be  absurd  and  horrible 
to  give  a  martyr's  crown  to  a  criminal. 
Vengeance  belongeth  unto  God.  He 
alone  is  wise  and  great  enough  to  deal 
adequately  with  the  case.  It  is  for  us  to 
keep  our  righteous  indignation  free  from 
the  poison  of  personal  hatred,  and  to  do 
no  more  than  is  needed  to  uphold  and 
vindicate  the  eternal  law. 

William  Hohenzollern,  and  his  fellow- 
conspirators  who  are  responsible  for  the 
[37] 


What    Peace    Means 

beginning  and  the  conduct  of  the  dreadful 
war  from  which  all  the  toiling  peoples  of 
earth  have  suffered,  must  be  brought  to 
the  bar  of  justice  and  sentenced;  other- 
wise the  world  will  have  no  defense 
against  the  anarchists  who  say  that  gov- 
ernment is  a  vain  thing;  and  the  bloody 
Bolshevists  who  proclaim  the  Empire  of 
the  Ignorant, — the  Boob-Rah, — as  the 
future  rule  of  the  world,  will  have  free 
scope. 

It  is  evident  that  a  league  of  free,  demo- 
cratic states,  pledged  by  mutual  covenant 
to  uphold  the  settlement  of  international 
differences  by  reason  and  justice  before 
the  use  of  violence,  offers  the  only  hope  of 
a  durable  peace  among  the  nations.  It  is 
also  the  only  defense  against  that  deadly 
and  destructive  war  of  classes  with  which 
Bolshevism  threatens  the  whole  world. 
The  spirit  of  Bolshevism  is  atheism  and 
enmity;  its  method  is  violence  and 
tyranny ;  its  result  would  be  a  reign  of 
[38] 


Peace    on    Earth 


terror  under  that  empty-headed  monster, 
"  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat." 
God  save  us  from  that !  It  would  be  the 
worst  possible  outcome  of  the  war  in 
which  we  have  offered  and  sacrificed  so 
much,  and  in  which  God  has  given  us  the 
opportunity  to  make  "  a  covenant  of 
peace." 

How  vast,  how  immeasurable,  are  the 
responsibilities  which  this  great  victory 
in  righteous  war  has  laid  upon  the  Allies 
and  America.  God  help  us  to  live  up  to 
them.  God  help  us  to  sow  the  future  not 
with  dragon's  teeth,  but  with  seeds  of 
blessed  harvest.  God  paint  upon  the 
broken  storm-cloud  the  rainbow  of  eternal 
hope.  God  help  us  and  our  friends  to 
make  a  peace  that  shall  mean  good  to  all 
mankind.  God  send  upon  our  victory  the 
light  of  the  cross  of  Christ  our  Saviour, 
where  mercy  and  truth  meet  together, 
righteousness  and  peace  kiss  each  other. 


[39] 


Ill 

The  Power  of  an  Endless  Life 


Who  is  made,  not  after  the  law  of  a 
carnal  commandment,  but  after  the 
power  of  an  endless  life. 

—Hebrews  7 :  16. 


Ill 


THE  POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE 

HE  message  and  hope  of 
immortality  are  nowhere 
more  distinctly  conveyed 
to  our  minds  than  in  con- 
nection with  that  resur- 
rection morn  when  Jesus  appeared  to 
Mary  Magdalene.  The  anniversary  of 
that  day  will  ever  be  the  festival  of  the  hu- 
man soul.  Even  those  who  do  not  clearly 
understand  or  fully  accept  its  meaning  in 
history  and  religion, — even  children  and 
ignorant  folk  and  doubters  and  unbe- 
lievers,— yes,  even  frivolous  people  and 
sullen  people,  feel  that  there  is  something 
in  this  festival  which  meets  the  need  and 
longing  of  their  hearts.  It  is  a  day  of  joy 
and  gladness,  a  day  of  liberation  and 
promise,  a  day  for  flowers  to  bloom  and 
[43] 


What    Peace    Means 


birds  to  sing,  a  day  of  spiritual  spring-tide 
and  immortal  hope. 

Mankind  desires  and  needs  such  a  day. 
We  are  overshadowed  in  all  our  affections 
and  aspirations,  all  our  efforts,  and  de- 
signs, by  the  dark  mystery  of  bodily 
death ;  the  uncertainty  and  the  brevity  of 
earthly  existence  make  us  tremble  and 
despair;  the  futility  of  our  plans  dismays 
us;  the  insecurity  of  our  dearest  treasure 
in  lives  linked  to  ours  fills  us  with  dismay. 

Is  there  no  escape  from  Death,  the 
Tyrant,  the  autocrat,  the  destroyer,  the 
last  enemy?  Why  love,  why  look  up- 
ward, why  strive  for  better  things  if  this 
impcrator  of  failure,  ultimate  extinction, 
rules  the  universe?  No  hope  beyond  the 
grave  means  no  peace  this  side  of  it.  A 
life  without  hope  is  a  life  without  God. 
If  Death  ends  all,  then  there  is  no  Father 
in  Heaven  in  whom  we  can  trust.  Who 
shall  deliver  us  from  the  body  of  this 
Death? 

[44] 


The  Power  of  an  Endless  Life 


Now  comes  Easter  with  its  immor- 
tal promise  and  assurance.  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  who  died  on  Calvary,  a  martyr 
of  humanity,  a  sacrifice  of  Divinity,  is 
alive  and  appears  to  His  humble  fol- 
lowers. The  manner  of  His  appearance, 
to  Mary  Magdalene,  to  His  disciples,  is 
not  the  most  important  thing.  The  fact 
is  that  He  did  appear.  He  who  was  cruci- 
fied in  the  cause  of  righteousness  and 
mercy,  lives  on  and  forever.  The  mes- 
sage of  His  resurrection  is  "  the  power  of 
an  endless  life." 

The  proof  of  this  message  is  in  the  ef- 
fect that  it  produced.  It  transformed  the 
handful  of  Jesus'  followers  from  despair 
to  confidence.  It  gave  Christianity  its 
growing  influence  over  the  heart  of  hu- 
manity. It  is  this  message  of  immortality 
that  makes  religion  vital  to  the  human 
world  to-day,  and  essential  to  the  founda- 
tion of  peace  on  earth. 

We  must  not  forget  in  our  personal 
[45] 


What    Peace    Means 

griefs  and  longings,  in  our  sorrows  for 
those  whom  we  have  lost  and  our  desire 
to  find  them  again,  in  our  sense  of  our 
own  mortal  frailty  and  the  brief  duration 
of  earthly  life,  the  celestial  impulse  which 
demands  a  life  triumphant  over  death. 

The  strongest  of  all  supports  for  peace 
on  earth  is  the  faith  in  immortality.  The 
truth  is,  the  very  character  of  our  being 
here  in  this  world  demands  continuance 
beyond  death.  There  is  nothing  good  or 
great  that  we  think  or  feel  or  endeavour, 
that  is  not  a  reaching  out  to  something 
better.  Our  finest  knowledge  is  but  the 
consciousness  of  limitation  and  the  long- 
ing that  it  may  be  removed.  Our  best 
moral  effort  is  but  a  slow  advance  towards 
something  better.  Our  sense  of  the  dif- 
ference between  good  and  evil,  our  peni- 
tence, our  aspiration,  all  this  moral  freight 
with  which  our  souls  are  laden,  is  a  cargo 
consigned  to  an  unseen  country.  Our 
bill  of  lading  reads,   "  To  the  immortal 

[46] 


The  Power  of  an  Endless  Life 

life."  If  we  must  sink  in  mid-ocean,  then 
all  is  lost,  and  the  voyage  of  life  is  a  pre- 
destined wreck. 

The  wisest,  the  strongest,  the  best  of 
mankind,  have  felt  this  most  deeply.  The 
faith  in  immortality  belongs  to  the  child- 
hood of  the  race,  and  the  greatest  of  the 
sages  have  always  returned  to  it  and 
taken  refuge  in  it.  Socrates  and  Plato, 
Cicero  and  Plutarch,  Montesquieu  and 
Franklin,  Kant  and  Emerson,  Tennyson 
and  Browning, — how  do  they  all  bear  wit- 
ness to  the  incompleteness  of  life  and 
reach  out  to  a  completion  beyond  the 
grave. 

"  No  great  Thinker  ever  lived  and  taught  you 
All  the  wonder  that  his  soul  received; 
No  great  Painter  ever  set  on  canvas 
All  the  glorious  vision  he  conceived. 

"  No  Musician  ever  held  your  spirit 
Charmed  and  bound  in  his  melodious  chains ; 
But,    be    sure,    he    heard,    and    strove    to 

render, 
Feeble  echoes  of  celestial  strains. 

[47] 


IV h  at    Peace    Me  ans 

"  No  real  Poet  ever  wove  in  numbers 
All  his  dream,  but  the  diviner  part, 
Hidden  from  all  the  world,  spake  to  him 

only 
In  the  voiceless  silence  of  his  heart. 

"  So  with  Love :  for  Love  and  Art  united 
Are  twin  mysteries :  different  yet  the  same ; 
Poor  indeed  would  be  the  love  of  any 
Who  could  find  its  full  and  perfect  name. 

"  Love  may  strive ;  but  vain  is  its  endeavour 
All  its  boundless  riches  to  unfold; 
Still  its  tenderest,  truest  secret  lingers 
Ever  in  its  deepest  depths  untold. 

"Things  of  Time  have  voices:  speak  and 

perish. 
Art  and  Love  speak ;  but  their  words  must 

be 
Like  sighings  of  illimitable  forests 
And  waves  of  an  unfathomable  sea." 

And  can  it  be  that  death  shall  put  the 
final  seal  of  irretrievable  ruin  on  all  this 
uncompleted  effort?  Can  it  be  that  the 
grave  shall  whelm  all  this  unuttered  love 
in  endless  silence?  Ah,  what  a  wild 
waste  of  precious  treasure,  what  a  mad 
[48] 


The  Power  of  an  Endless  Life 


destruction  of  fair  designs,  what  an  utter 
failure,  life  would  be  if  death  must  end  all ! 
The  very  reasonableness  of  our  nature, 
our  sense  of  order,  declare  the  impotence 
of  Death  to  create  such  a  wreck.  And 
most  of  all  our  deep  affections  cry  out 
against  the  conclusion  of  despair.  They 
will  not  hear  of  dissolution.  They  reach 
out  their  hands  into  the  darkness.  They 
demand  and  they  promise  an  unending 
fellowship,  a  deepening  communion,  a 
more  perfect  satisfaction.  Do  you  re- 
member what  Thackeray  wrote  ?  "  If  love 
lives  through  all  life,  and  survives  through 
all  sorrow;  and  remains  steadfast  with  us 
through  all  changes;  and  in  all  darkness 
of  spirit  burns  brightly ;  and  if  we  die,  de- 
plores us  forever,  and  still  loves  us 
equally;  and  exists  with  the  very  last  gasp 
and  throb  of  the  faithful  bosom,  whence 
it  passes  with  the  pure  soul  beyond  death, 
surely  it  shall  be  immortal.  Though  we 
who  remain  are  separated  from  it,  is  it  not 
[49] 


What    Peace    Means 

ours  in  heaven?  If  we  love  still  those 
whom  we  lose,  can  we  altogether  lose 
those  whom  we  love?  " 

To  deny  this  instinct  is  to  deny  that 
which  lies  at  the  very  root  of  our  life.  If 
love  perishes  with  death,  then  our  affec- 
tions are  our  worst  curses,  the  world  is 
the  cruellest  torture-house,  and  "  all 
things  work  together  for  evil  to  those 
who  love."  Do  you  believe  it?  Is  it 
possible  ?  Nay,  all  that  is  best  and  noblest 
and  purest  within  us  rejects  such  a  faith 
in  Absolute  Evil  as  the  power  that  has 
created  and  rules  the  world.  In  the  pres- 
ence of  love  we  feel  that  we  behold  that 
which  must  belong  to  a  good  God  and 
therefore  cannot  die.  Destruction  cannot 
touch  it.  The  grave  cannot  hold  it. 
Loving  and  being  loved,  we  dare  to  stand 
in  the  very  doorway  of  the  tomb,  and  as- 
sert the  power  of  an  endless  life. 

And  it  seems  to  me  that  this  courage 
never  comes  to  us  so  fully  as  when  we  are 
[5o] 


The  Power  of  an  Endless  Life 

brought  in  closest  contact  with  death, 
when  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with 
that  dread  shadow  and  forced  either  to 
deny  its  power,  once  and  forever,  or  to 
give  up  everything  and  die  with  our  hopes. 
I  wish  that  I  could  make  this  clear  to  you 
as  it  lies  in  my  own  experience.  Perhaps 
in  trying  to  do  it  I  should  speak  closer  to 
your  own  heart  than  in  any  other  way. 
For  surely 

"  There  is  no  flock,  however  watched  and 
tended 
But  one  dead  lamb  is  there. 
There  is  no  fireside,  howsoe'er  defended 
But  has  a  vacant  chair." 

A  flower  grew  in  your  garden.  You 
delighted  in  its  beauty  and  fragrance.  It 
gave  you  all  it  had  to  give,  but  it  did  not 
love  you.  It  could  not.  When  the  time 
came  for  it  to  die,  you  were  sorry.  But 
it  did  not  seem  to  you  strange  or  un- 
natural. There  was  no  waste.  Its  mis- 
sion was  fulfilled.     You  understood  why 

[51] 


IF  hat    Peace    Means 

its  petals  should  fall,  its  leaf  wither,  its 
root  and  branch  decay.  And  even  if  a 
storm  came  and  snapped  it,  still  there  was 
nothing  lost  that  was  indispensable,  noth- 
ing that  could  not  be  restored. 

A  child  grew  in  your  household,  dearly 
loved  and  answering  your  love.  You  saw 
that  soul  unfold,  learning  to  know  the  evil 
from  the  good,  learning  to  accept  duty 
and  to  resist  selfishness,  learning  to  be 
brave  and  true  and  kind,  learning  to  give 
you  day  by  day  a  deeper  and  a  richer 
sympathy,  learning  to  love  God  and  to 
pray  and  to  be  good.  And  then  perhaps 
you  saw  that  young  heart  being  perfected 
under  the  higher  and  holier  discipline  of 
suffering,  bearing  pain  patiently,  facing 
trouble  and  danger  like  a  hero,  not  shrink- 
ing even  from  the  presence  of  death,  but 
(rusting  all  to  your  love  and  to  God's,  and 
taking  just  what  came  from  day  to  day, 
from  hour  to  hour.  And  then  suddenly 
the  light  went  out  in  the  shining  eyes. 
[52] 


The  Power  of  an  Endless  Life 

The  brave  heart  stopped.  The  soul  was 
gone.  Lost,  perished,  blotted  out  forever 
in  the  darkness  of  death?  Ah,  no;  you 
know  better  than  that.  That  clear,  dawn- 
ing intelligence,  that  deepening  love,  that 
childlike  faith  in  God,  that  pure  innocence 
of  soul,  did  not  come  from  the  dust.  How 
could  they  return  thither?  The  music 
ceases  because  the  instrument  is  broken. 
But  the  player  is  not  dead.  He  is  learn- 
ing a  better  music.  He  is  finding  a  more 
perfect  instrument.  It  is  impossible  that 
he  should  be  holden  of  death.  God  wastes 
nothing  so  precious. 

"  What  is  excellent 
As  God  lives  is  permanent. 
Hearts  are  dust ;  hearts'  loves  remain. 
Hearts'  love  will  meet  thee  again." 

But  I  am  sure  that  we  must  go  further 
than  this  in  order  to  understand  the  full 
strength  and  comfort  of  the  text.  The  as- 
sertion of  the  impotence  of  death  to  end 
all  is  based  upon  something  deeper  than 
[53] 


What    Peace    Means 

the  prophecy  of  immortality  in  the  human 
heart.  It  has  a  stronger  foundation  than 
the  outreachings  of  human  knowledge 
and  moral  effort  towards  a  higher  state  in 
which  completion  may  be  attained.  It  has 
a  more  secure  ground  to  rest  upon  than 
the  deathless  affection  with  which  our 
love  clings  to  its  object.  The  impotence  of 
death  is  revealed  to  us  in  the  spiritual  per- 
fection of  Christ. 

Here  then,  in  the  "  power  of  an  endless 
life,"  I  find  the  corner-stone  df  peace  on 
earth  among  men  of  good-will.  Take 
this  mortal  life  as  a  thing  of  seventy 
years,  more  or  less,  to  which  death  puts 
a  final  period,  and  you  have  nothing  but 
confusion,  chance  and  futility, — nothing- 
safe,  nothing  realized,  nothing  completed. 
Evil  often  triumphs.  Virtue  often  is  de- 
feated. 

"  The  good  die  young, 
And  we  whose  hearts  are  dry  as  summer  dust 
Burn  to  the  socket." 

[54  J 


The  Power  of  an  Endless  Life 

But  take  death,  as  Christ  teaches  us, 
not  as  a  full  stop,  but  as  only  a  comma  in 
the  story  of  an  endless  life,  and  then  the 
whole  aspect  of  our  existence  is  changed. 
That  which  is  material,  base,  evil,  drops 
down.  That  which  is  spiritual,  noble, 
good,  rises  to  lead  us  on. 

The  conviction  of  immortality,  the  for- 
ward-looking faith  in  a  life  beyond  the 
grave,  the  spirit  of  Easter,  is  essential  to 
peace  on  earth  for  three  reasons. 

I.  It  is  the  only  faith  that  lifts  man's 
soul,  which  is  immortal,  above  his  body, 
which  is  perishable.  It  raises  him  out  of 
the  tyranny  of  the  flesh  to  the  service  of 
his  ideals.  It  makes  him  sure  that  there 
are  things  worth  fighting  and  dying  for. 
The  fighting  and  the  dying,  for  the  cause 
of  justice  and  liberty,  are  sacrifices  on  the 
Divine  altar  which  shall  never  be  for- 
gotten. 

II.  The  faith  in  immortality  carries 
with  it  the  assurance  of  a  Divine  reassess- 

[55] 


What    Peace    Means 

ment  of  earth's  inequalities.  Those  who 
have  suffered  unjustly  here  will  be  rec- 
ompensed in  the  future.  Those  who 
have  acted  wickedly  and  unjustly  here 
will  be  punished.  Whether  that  punish- 
ment will  be  final  or  remedial  we  do  not 
know.  Perhaps  it  may  lead  to  the  ex- 
tinction of  the  soul  of  evil,  perhaps  to  its 
purifying  and  deliverance.  On  these 
questions  I  fall  back  on  the  word  of  God : 
"  The  wages  of  sin  is  death,  but  the  gift 
of  God  is  eternal  life  in  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord." 

III.  The  faith  in  immortality  brings 
with  it  the  sense  of  order,  tranquillity, 
steadiness  and  courage  in  the  present  life. 
It  sets  us  free  from  mean  and  cowardly 
temptations,  makes  it  easier  to  resist  the 
wild  animal  passions  of  lust  and  greed  and 
cruelty,  brings  us  into  eternal  relations 
and  fellowships,  makes  us  partners  with 
the  wise  and  good  of  all  the  ages,  en- 
nobles our  earthly  patriotism  by  giving 
[56] 


The  Power  of  an  Endless  Life 

us  a  heavenly  citizenship.  Yea,  it  knits 
us  in  bonds  of  love  with  the  coming  gen- 
eration. It  is  better  than  the  fountain  of 
youth.  We  shall  know  and  see  them  as 
they  go  on  their  way,  long  after  we  have 
left  the  path.  The  faith  in  immortality 
sets  a  touch  of  the  imperishable  on  every 
generous  impulse  and  unselfish  deed.  It 
inspires  to  sublime  and  heroic  virtues, — 
spiritual  splendours, — deeds  of  sacrifice 
and  suffering  for  which  earth  has  no  ade- 
quate recompense,  but  whose  reward  is 
great  in  heaven.  Here  is  the  patience 
of  the  saints,  the  glorious  courage  of 
patriots,  martyrs,  and  confessors,  some- 
thing more  bright  and  shining  than 
secular  morality  can  bring  forth, — a  flash- 
ing of  the  inward  light  which  fails  not,  but 
grows  clearer  as  death  draws  near.  What 
noble  evidences  of  this  come  to  us  out  of 
the  great  war. 

"Are  you  in  great  distress?"  asked  a 
nurse  of  an  American  soldier  whose  legs 
[57] 


What    Peace    Means 

had  been  shot  away  on  the  battle-field. 
"  I  am  in  as  great  peace,"  said  he, 
"  through  Jesus  my  Lord,  as  a  man  can 
possibly  be,  out  of  Paradise." 

A  secretary  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the  night 
before  he  was  killed,  wrote  to  his  father: 
"  I  have  not  been  sent  here  to  die :  I  am 
to  fight:  I  offer  my  life  for  future  genera- 
tions; I  shall  not  die,  I  shall  merely 
change  my  direction.  He  who  walks  be- 
fore us  is  so  great  that  we  cannot  lose 
Him  from  sight." 

A  simple  French  boy,  grievously 
wounded,  is  dying  in  the  ambulance.  He 
is  a  Protestant.  The  nurse  who  bends 
over  him  is  a  Catholic  sister.  She  writes 
down  his  words  as  they  fall  slowly  from 
his  lips :  "  O  my  God,  let  Thy  will  be  done 
and  not  mine.  O  my  God,  Thou  knowest 
that  I  never  wished  war,  but  that  I  have 
fought  because  it  was  Thy  will;  I  offered 
my  life  so  that  peace  might  prevail. 
O  my  God,  I  pray  for  all  my  dear 
[58] 


The  Power  of  an  Endless  Life 

ones,  .  .  .  father,  mother,  brothers, 
sisters.  Give  a  hundredfold  to  those 
nurses  for  all  they  have  done  for  me.  I 
pray  for  them  one  and  all." 

Here,  in  the  midst  of  carnage  and  con- 
fusion, horror  and  death,  was  perfect 
peace,  the  triumph  of  immortality. 

What  then  shall  we  say  of  the  new 
teachers  and  masters,  the  cynical  lords  of 
materialism  and  misrule,  who  tell  us  that 
they  are  going  to  banish  this  outworn 
superstition  and  all  others  like  it  from  the 
mind  of  man?  They  are  going  to  make 
a  new  world  in  which  men  shall  walk  by 
sight,  and  not  by  faith ;  a  world  in  which 
universal  happiness  shall  be  produced  by 
the  forcible  division  of  material  goods, 
and  brotherhood  promoted  by  the  simple 
expedient  of  killing  those  whom  they  dis- 
like ;  a  world  in  which  there  shall  be 
neither  nation,  God,  nor  Church,  nor  any- 
where a  thought  of  any  life  but  this  which 
ends  in  the  grave.  It  is  a  mad  dream  of 
[59] 


What    Peace    Means 

wild  and  reckless  men.  But  it  threatens 
evil  to  all  the  world.  Do  you  remember 
what  happened  when  the  French  Revolu- 
tion took  that  course,  abolished  the  Sab- 
bath, defiled  the  Churches,  broke  down 
the  altars,  and  enthroned  a  harlot  as  the 
Goddess  of  Reason?  The  Reign  of 
Terror  followed.  Something  like  that 
has  happened,  recently,  in  many  parts  of 
Europe.  And  if  these  new  tyrants  of 
ignorance,  unbelief,  and  7//nnorality  have 
their  way,  the  madness  and  the  darkness 
will  spread  until  the  black  cloud  charged 
with  death  covers  the  face  of  the  earth  for 
a  season  with  shame  and  anguish  and 
destruction.  A  sane  world,  an  orderly 
world,  a  peaceful  world,  can  never  be 
founded  on  materialism.  That  founda- 
tion is  a  quicksand  in  which  all  that  is 
dearest  to  man  goes  down  in  death. 

Religion  is  essential  to  true  peace  in 
the  soul  and  to  peace  on  earth  through 
righteousness.     Immortality    is    essential 
[60] 


The  Power  of  an  Endless  Life 

to  true  religion.  Thanks  be  to  God  who 
hath  given  us  Jesus  Christ,  who  was  dead 
and  is  alive  again  and  liveth  forevermore, 
to  touch  and  ennoble,  to  inspire  and  con- 
sole, to  pacify  and  uplift  our  earthly  ex- 
istence with  the  power  of  an  endless  life. 


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[61] 


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